Daily Saints

Saint John Neumann

Saint John Neumann was born in what is now the Czech Republic. After studying in Prague, he came to New York at 25 and was ordained a priest. He did missionary work in New York until he was 29, when he joined the Redemptorists and became its first member to profess vows in the United States. He continued missionary work in Maryland, Virginia and Ohio, where he became popular with the Germans.
At 41, as bishop of Philadelphia, he organized the parochial school system into a diocesan one, increasing the number of pupils almost twentyfold within a short time.
Gifted with outstanding organizing ability, he drew into the city many teaching communities of sisters and the Christian Brothers. During his brief assignment as vice provincial for the Redemptorists, he placed them in the forefront of the parochial movement.
Well-known for his holiness and learning, spiritual writing and preaching, on October 13, 1963, John Neumann became the first American bishop to be beatified. Canonized in 1977, he is buried in St. Peter the Apostle Church in Philadelphia.

Sources:

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-john-neumann/

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Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton

Daily Saints

Saint Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton is a true daughter of the American Revolution, born August 28, 1774, just two years before the Declaration of Independence. By birth and marriage, she was linked to the first families of New York and enjoyed the fruits of high society. Reared a staunch Episcopalian, she learned the value of prayer, Scripture and a nightly examination of conscience. Her father, Dr. Richard Bayley, did not have much use for churches but was a great humanitarian, teaching his daughter to love and serve others.

At 19, Elizabeth was the belle of New York and married a handsome, wealthy businessman, William Magee Seton. They had five children before his business failed and he died of tuberculosis. At 30, Elizabeth was widowed and penniless, with five small children to support.

While in Italy with her dying husband, Elizabeth witnessed Catholicity in action through family friends. Three basic points led her to become a Catholic: belief in the Real Presence, devotion to the Blessed Mother and conviction that the Catholic Church led back to the apostles and to Christ. Many of her family and friends rejected her when she became a Catholic in March 1805. To support her children, she opened a school in Baltimore. From the beginning, her group followed the lines of a religious community, which was officially founded in 1809.

The thousand or more letters of Mother Seton reveal the development of her spiritual life from ordinary goodness to heroic sanctity. She suffered great trials of sickness, misunderstanding, the death of loved ones (her husband and two young daughters) and the heartache of a wayward son. She died January 4, 1821, and became the first American-born citizen to be beatified (1963) and then canonized (1975). She is buried in Emmitsburg, Maryland.

Sources:

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-elizabeth-ann-seton/

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Saint Genevieve

Daily Saints

Saint Genevieve was born in Nanterre and moved to Paris (then known as Lutetia) after encountering Germanus of Auxerre and Lupus of Troyes and dedicated herself to a Christian life.

In 451 she led a “prayer marathon” that was said to have saved Paris by diverting Attila’s Huns away from the city. When the Germanic king Childeric I besieged the city in 464, Genevieve acted as an intermediary between the city and its besiegers, collecting food and convincing Childeric to release his prisoners. Genevieve had frequent visions of heavenly saints and angels. She reported her visions and prophecies until her enemies conspired to drown her in a lake. Through the intervention of Germanus, their animosity was finally overcome. The Bishop of Paris appointed her to look after the welfare of the other Consecrated virgins, and by her instruction and example, she led them to a high degree of sanctity.

She is the patroness saint of Paris in the Catholic and Orthodox traditions.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genevieve
McNamara, Halborg, and Whatley 18.
McNamara, Halborg, and Whatley 4.

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Saint Basil the Great

Daily Saints

Saint Basil was on his way to becoming a famous teacher when he decided to begin a religious life of gospel poverty. After studying various modes of religious life, he founded what was probably the first monastery in Asia Minor. He is to monks of the East what Saint Benedict is to the West, and Basil’s principles influence Eastern monasticism today.
He was ordained a priest, assisted the archbishop of Caesarea—now southeastern Turkey—and ultimately became archbishop himself, in spite of opposition from some of the bishops under him, probably because they foresaw coming reforms.

Arianism, one of the most damaging heresies in the history of the Church which denied the divinity of Christ, was at its height. Emperor Valens persecuted orthodox believers, and put great pressure on Basil to remain silent and admit the heretics to communion. Basil remained firm, and Valens backed down. But trouble remained. When the great Saint Athanasius died, the mantle of defender of the faith against Arianism fell upon Basil. He strove mightily to unite and rally his fellow Catholics who were crushed by tyranny and torn by internal dissension. He was misunderstood, misrepresented, accused of heresy and ambition. Even appeals to the pope brought no response. “For my sins I seem to be unsuccessful in everything.”

Basil was tireless in pastoral care. He preached twice a day to huge crowds, built a hospital that was called a wonder of the world—as a youth he had organized famine relief and worked in a soup kitchen himself—and fought the prostitution business.
Basil was best known as an orator. Though not recognized greatly in his lifetime, his writings rightly place him among the great teachers of the Church. Seventy-two years after his death, the Council of Chalcedon described him as “the great Basil, minister of grace who has expounded the truth to the whole earth.

Sources:

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-basil-the-great/

https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=261

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Saint Giuseppe Maria Tomasi

Daily Saints

Saint Giuseppe Maria Tomasi was an Italian Theatine Catholic priest, scholar, reformer and cardinal. His scholarship was a significant source of the reforms in the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church during the 20th century. He was beatified by Pope Pius VII in 1803, and was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1986.

His life was oriented toward God from his first years. Formed and educated in the family home, where they did not lack riches or moral training, he gave proofs of a spirit very open to study and to piety. His parents cared greatly for this and for his own Christian formation and his instruction in the classical and modern languages, above all in the Spanish language, because he was destined by the family for the royal court of Madrid, as he was bound to inherit from his own father, as his title of nobility, that of Grandee of Spain.

But Tomasi’s own spirit aspired, even from youth, to be small in the Kingdom of God, and to serve not the kings of the earth but the King of heaven. He cultivated his pious desire in his heart until he obtained the consent of his father to follow his vocation to the religious life.

Saint Giuseppe Maria Tomasi taught catechism to the children of the poor in his titular church, also introducing its congregants to the use of Gregorian chant. He died in 1713, mourned by all, especially by Pope Clement, who so admired his sanctity that he had consulted him before accepting the papacy. He was buried in his titular church. The relics of his body, transferred in 1971 from the Basilica of his title of Ss. Silvestro e Martini ai Monti, are presently exposed for the veneration of the faithful in the Basilica of San Andrea della Valle of the Theatine Fathers, in Rome.

Sources:

Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Bl. Giuseppe Maria Tommasi". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Biography at The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church

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Saint Melania

Daily Saints

Saint Melania was a Christian saint who lived during the reign of Emperor Honorius. She was the only child of the rich and powerful Valerius Publicola and Caeionia Albina. Her relatives from both sides of her family held the highest positions in the state.

At the age of 14, she was arranged to be marriage to Valerius Pinianus. After the early deaths of two children, she and her husband embraced Christian asceticism and maintained a celibate life thereafter. As the sole heiress of her father and paternal grandfather, she inherited their wealth and enormous estates on the death of Publicola after 7 years marriage.

Her dislike of rich apparel which had caused her so much suffering during her father’s life, now led her to give away her silken robes as church altar cloths, her gold ornaments, and everything that was rich and costly in her attire. She wore a garment of coarse wool of the cheapest kind, and fashioned rather to hide and disfigure her beautiful form. She took with her to her villa a great number of poor families and slaves, whom she treated as brothers and sisters.

Melania’s country house afforded hospitality to the pilgrims to Rome, especially numerous deputations of bishops and priests who were received with every mark of honour and respect. She dispensed lavish hospitality and spared no expense in the entertainment of her guests. She decided to dispose of her vast estates and give the proceeds to ecclesiastical institutions and to the poor.

Sources:

Schlitz, Carl (1913). "St. Melania (the Younger)". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Rampolla del Tindaro, Mariano; Leahy, Ellen Mary Agnes; Thurston, Herbert (1908). London : Burns & Oates. Retrieved 7 November 2022.
Palladius, The Lausiac History (1918), Chapter LIV The Elder Melania
Butler, Alban (1962). Butler's lives of the saints. Vol. 4. P.J. Kenedy & Sons. p. 647. OCLC 18475812.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melania_the_Younger

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Saint Egwin

Daily Saints

Born in the seventh century of royal blood, Egwin entered a monastery, and was enthusiastically received by royalty, clergy, and the people as the bishop of Worcester, England. As a bishop he was known as a protector of orphans and the widowed and a fair judge.

His popularity didn’t hold up among members of the clergy, however. They saw him as overly strict, while he felt he was simply trying to correct abuses and impose appropriate disciplines. Bitter resentments arose, and Egwin made his way to Rome to present his case to Pope Constantine. The case against Egwin was examined and annulled.

Upon his return to England, Egwin founded Evesham Abbey, which became one of the great Benedictine houses of medieval England. It was dedicated to Mary, who had reportedly made it known to Egwin just where a church should be built in her honor.

Egwin died at the abbey on December 30, 717. Following his burial many miracles were attributed to him: The blind could see, the deaf could hear, the sick were healed.

Sources:

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-egwin/

https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=3069

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Saint Aileran

Daily Saints

Saint Aileran was one of the most distinguished scholars at the School of Clonard in the 7th century.
His early life is not recorded, but he was attracted to Clonard by the fame of Saint Finnián and his disciples. He became lector of the school in 650. He died of the Yellow Plague, and his death is recorded in the Annals of Ulster. Because of his knowledge of the works of Origen, Philo, St. Jerome, St. Augustine, and others, he was well versed in patristic literature.
According to John Colgan, numerous works can be ascribed to Ailerán, including the Fourth Life of Saint Patrick, a Latin litany, and the Lives of Saint Brigid and Saint Féichín of Fore. Ailerán’s best known work is his mystical interpretation of the Ancestry of Our Lord Jesus Christ, according to the genealogy of Jesus in Saint Matthew’s Gospel. This was published in the Benedictine edition of the Fathers, and the editors said that they published it although Aileran was not a Benedictine, because he unfolded the meaning of the Sacred Scripture with so much learning and ingenuity that every student of the Sacred Volume and especially preachers of the Divine Word will regard the publication as most acceptable.” Another work of his is titled A Short Moral Explanation of the Sacred Names, which could be a fragment of a larger work.

Sources:

Grattan-Flood, William. "St. Aileran." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 20 Sept. 2012
Ailerani Interpretatio Mystica Progenitorum Domini Iesu Christi". Archived from the original on 6 April 2012.
Monasticism in Ireland - History of West Cork". www.libraryireland.com.
https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=1198

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Saint Anthony the Hermit

Daily Saints

Saint Anthony the Hermit, also referred to as Anthony of Lerins was born in Valeria. When he was eight years old, his father died and he was entrusted to the care of the holy Abbot Severinus of Noricum, in modern-day Austria. Upon the death of Severinus in 482, Anthony was sent to Germany and put in the care of his uncle, Constantius, an early Bishop of Lorsch. While there, Anthony is thought to have become a monk at the age of twenty.
In 488, at about 20 years of age, Anthony moved to Italy to take up an eremitical life with a small group of hermits living on an island in Lake Como. He was eventually joined by numerous disciples seeking to emulate his holiness and he chose to seek greater solitude in Gaul. He lived in various solitary places until two years before his death he became a monk at the Abbey of Lérins, where he became well known locally for the holiness of his life and the miracles he had performed.
Anthony is honoured on 28 December by the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church and commemorated also on that same day by the Eastern Orthodox Churches.

Sources:

https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=146
Saints of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Rome
Martyrologium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2004), p. 689

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Saint John the Evangelist

Daily Saints

It is God who calls; human beings answer. The vocation of John and his brother James is stated very simply in the Gospels, along with that of Peter and his brother Andrew: Jesus called them; they followed. The absoluteness of their response is indicated by the account. James and John “were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him” (Matthew 4:21b-22).

For the three former fishermen—Peter, James and John—that faith was to be rewarded by a special friendship with Jesus. They alone were privileged to be present at the Transfiguration, the raising of the daughter of Jairus and the agony in Gethsemane. But John’s friendship was even more special. Tradition assigns to him the Fourth Gospel, although most modern Scripture scholars think it unlikely that the apostle and the evangelist are the same person.
John’s own Gospel refers to him as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (see John 13:23; 19:26; 20:2), the one who reclined next to Jesus at the Last Supper, and the one to whom Jesus gave the exquisite honor of caring for his mother, as John stood beneath the cross. “Woman, behold your son…. Behold, your mother” (John 19:26b, 27b).
Because of the depth of his Gospel, John is usually thought of as the eagle of theology, soaring in high regions that other writers did not enter. But the ever-frank Gospels reveal some very human traits. Jesus gave James and John the nickname, “sons of thunder.” John was with Peter when the first great miracle after the Resurrection took place—the cure of the man crippled from birth—which led to their spending the night in jail together. The mysterious experience of the Resurrection is perhaps best contained in the words of Acts: “Observing the boldness of Peter and John and perceiving them to be uneducated, ordinary men, they [the questioners] were amazed, and they recognized them as the companions of Jesus” (Acts 4:13).
The Apostle John is traditionally considered the author also of three New Testament letters and the Book of Revelation. His Gospel is a very personal account. He sees the glorious and divine Jesus already in the incidents of his mortal life. At the Last Supper, John’s Jesus speaks as if he were already in heaven. John’s is the Gospel of Jesus’ glory.

Sources:

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-john-the-evangelist/

https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=67

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_the_Apostle

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Saint John Neumann

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Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton

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Saint Genevieve

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Saint Basil the Great

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Saint Giuseppe Maria Tomasi

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Saint Melania

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Saint Egwin

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Saint Aileran

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Saint Anthony the Hermit

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Saint John the Evangelist

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